“Stop acting like a hungry little monkey”, those words came spilling out of my mouth faster than I could catch them.  I didn’t say it in a mean way,  I just said it as a matter of fact.  You see my friend Karla was over and I had just come from buying a bunch of fruit to curb this Bionico craving that had been hankering at the back of my tongue for the last couple of days. When I mentioned in passing I was going to start working on a dish of bionico, she turned into a hyper, nagging, relentless little infected blister.  Saying to me every other minute “Are you going to make that bionico?”, “What time are you going to make the bionico?”, “How much bionico are you going to make?”,  “Can I take some home?”  I felt like her energy turned into a nervous twitch and if she could scratch the side of her ribcage and make ooooh and ahhhh sounds she would.  Don’t get me wrong, I understand the power of the bionico, but she was acting straight out grubby. I started to feel uneasy and wanted to protect and hover over my now sacred bionico…. thats when I just blurted it out,  “Stop acting like a hungry little monkey.” Her eyes grew wide, I don’t know if she was embarrassed or if she was just stunned by the reality of my words. It was too late, the truth was on the table.  I tried to glaze over what had just happened by abruptly shifting gears with a long,  sincere explanation of how September is National Organics Month, and Whole Foods Market is celebrating with an abundance of fresh, organic grapes in stores all month long.  This eased the blow, then I whipped up a big bowl of  bionico and forced myself to share half with her.

Ingredients for Bionico: 

1 1/2- cups organic red grapes (sliced in half)

1/2 – cup organic green grapes (sliced in half)

2 – sliced bananas

1 1/2 – cups peeled and chopped mango

1 1/2 – cups watermelon (cubed)

1 – cup green apple (cubed)

1 – cup pineapple (cubed)

1 – cup strawberries (sliced)

1/2 – cup sugar

3/4 – cup sour cream

1/2 – cup raisins

1/2 – cup chopped almonds

Mix all fruit in a big bowl.

Then in a small bowl mix sugar, and sour cream together until smooth. Then pour over mixed fruit and mix well.

Serve in a serving bowl and sprinkle with raisins and almonds. Enjoy!

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Whole Foods Market, but the recipe and opinions are my own. 

I’ve been known to sing silly songs.  I make up my own lyrics and improvise where my mind draws a blank….  isn’t that part of the creative process?  Either way I think of David Bowie’s song “Changes” everytime I eat or make Chinese Chicken Salad….  I like to say “Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Chinese Chicken Salad” in the same way he sings “Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes.”  Anything to get my Bowie fix for the day.  Picture me on this hot day in a pair of cut off Levi’s (very 70’s) with the little strings hanging, an old Ziggy Stardust t-shirt eating my Chinese Chicken Salad filled with mandarin oranges, ramen and almonds!

Ingredients for Chinese Chicken Salad:

1 – head of green cabbage (chopped)

1 – bunch of cilantro (just the leaves are needed)

7 – stalks of Dole green onion

1 1/2 – cups sliced almonds

1 – cup of Dole mandarin oranges

3/4 – cup grated carrot

Favorite Chinese Chicken Salad dressing

1 – package of instant ramen noodles (crushed and uncooked)

Left over grilled or rotisserie chicken pieces (2 to 3 cups)

Cut cabbage in half then slice cabbage very thinly, until all is sliced. Add to a big bowl. Wash cilantro and add leaves to the cabbage bowl.

Next cut off the stringy ends of the green onions and a small portion of the green ends. Then thinly slice and add to the cabbage bowl. Pour almonds on top of green onion. Mix well.

Add mandarin oranges, carrots, and salad dressing. Mix well.

Then top with ramen, and chicken and give it a final mix.

All photos taken by: Mando Lopez

There’s something very reassuring about eating kale salad.  Number 1, you know you made the right choice for your body that day.  Number 2, this leafy green is high in fiber and has zero fat.  Number 3, Kale is high in Calcium, Vitamin A, C and K, and has more Iron than beef.  Number 4, Kale is an anti-inflammatory packed with powerful antioxidents!  These are reasons enough for me to want to eat this salad again and again.

I always shake up my Kale salad by making different dressings.  Remember to make your kale salad a few hours in advance and allow it to sit in the dressing just to soften the roughage up a bit.

Kale Salad in Tahini Dressing:

1- bundle Kale

2 – large lemons (juiced) 

1/2 – cup Joyva sesame tahini puree

2 – garlic cloves (minced)

3- tablespoons of lime flavored soy sauce

1/4 – cup water

1/2 – cup pine nuts ( I like to toast mine)

Start by rinsing your Kale well.

Then place on a cutting board and cut into bit size shreds.  Place in a big bowl.

In a mixing bowl add lemon juice, tahini sesame puree, minced garlic, soy sauce and water.  Mix well.  At first the mixture will curdle then as you continue mixing it will go smooth.

Pour over chopped Kale and mix well to combine.

Next add pine nuts and cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for a few hours or over night. Enjoy!

 All photos taken by: Nicole Presley

The idea of having a bar-b-que doesn’t exist if corn on the cob isn’t thrown on the grill.  I take pleasure in watching people eat their corn.  So many different ways to enjoy each kernel.  Some people eat it like a old typewriter on fast speed….very crickety.  All the way down one side and back at the top again for another go at it. Some people pick each kernel and savor it slowly. Some people just hack away at the corn taking big bites here and there with no rhythm or coordination.  I am a meticulous corn eater, I eat one side and then more on to the next….  never leaving a kernel untouched.  Then you have your funny people that bite a kernel and place them strategically in their teeth and leave them there to resemble messy mouth.  Maybe that last one just happens in my family, I don’t know.  Whichever the case, delight in this corn and eat it the way you know how.

All photos taken by: Nicole Presley

Ingredients for grilled corn on the cob:

Fresh corn on the cob

Kerrygold garlic and herb butter

basil infused olive oil

fresh lime juice

salt and pepper

aluminum foil

Take a piece of aluminum foil (7×7)and place down on  as a work space/wrapper. Place corn on aluminum foil and spread butter around entire corn to cover it.

Then drizzle with olive oil and squeeze with fresh lime juice.

Next season with salt and pepper to your liking.

Then wrap the corn in aluminum foil nice and tight, and start on the next one.  One you finishing wrapping all your cobs. Throw them on a bar-b-que grill and cook on each side for 5 to 6 minutes. A corn has 4 sides…. a total of 20 to 24 minutes.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!

My mouth waters at the anticipation of this dish.  I remember the first time I watched my friend Ji-Young make it, I was shocked that she was using day old steamed rice out of the fridge and SPAM.  Call me sheltered if you’d like but I don’t think I had ever tasted SPAM at that point in my life and didn’t quite know what to expect.  Actually I had never experienced kimchi in a fried rice either, so the results were going to enlighten my palate.  As she prepared the rice she told me, “Whenever you add kimchi to a fried rice you must fry the rice in butter.  If we were just adding meat and veggies we would fry in oil.”  I shoved that tip in my pocket, took it home and deposited it in my memory bank.  Finally the rice was done…… I dug my chopsticks in and never looked back.  In my opinion this rice is one of the BEST side dishes you can place on the table.  Thank you Miss Moon for introducing me to this delectable treat.  I hope my version represents your special dish well.

Ingredients for Korean Fried Rice:

3 – tablespoons butter

1 – heaping cup spam (cubed small)

1 – cup onion (sliced)

2 – cups kimchi (chopped small)

4 – cups steamed rice (a day old)

3 – eggs

4 – sprigs green onion (sliced & chopped)

1/2 – tablespoon soy sauce

1 – tablespoon sesame seeds

In a large frying pan over a medium high flame add 1 tablespoon butter and allow to melt then add cubed spam.  Fry until spam is slightly crisp, about 5 minutes.  Then add in onion and mix well.  Continue to fry for about 2 to 3 minutes.

Next add in 2 tablespoons of butter and allow to melt into spam and onions, then add in chopped kimchi.  Fry in pan for about 4 to 5 minutes.

Once the kimchi and onions are nice and soft add the day old rice.  It will take a second to break it up into the kimchi mixture.  Mix well.

Once the rice is combined lower the flame to a simmer.  In a separate pan make some scrambled eggs then add to the rice, then top with green onion and soy sauce.  Mix well.

Lastly sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve HOT!!!!!  Eat with a piece of meat or by it’s lonesome…. D-LISH!

All photos taken by: Mando Lopez

The smell of certain foods take me to other places or times in my life.  I love that.  My wheel of music does the same for me.  Especially songs from my adolescence.  When I need to be inspired I find music to be my biggest muse.  In my world, cooking and listening to music go hand in hand.  Nothing better then putting on a GREAT album, when preparing a big meal.  I get lost singing along to the lyrics, with complete focus on what I’m cooking.  It’s my way of telling the rest of the planet to take a hike while I encircle myself in the joy of escaping into my own private orbit.  Once I’m in the safety of that bubble the possibilities are inexhaustible.  I’m locked in.  If I feel like singing at the top of my lungs it has to be Fiona Apple, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, The Pretenders, or Bjork.  If the mood calls for something that’s more upbeat New Order, Daft Punk (Discovery), Imperial Teen, Lily Allen, Manu Chao, or Michael Jackson (Off The Wall) will get me moving.  When it’s all about the French invasion who better than Brigitte Bardot, Django Reinhardt, and Serge Gainsbourg, those are my faves!  Sometimes I want to become one with the music…. John Lennon & Yoko Ono (Double Fantasy), Hugh Masekela (Grazin in The Grass), Ethiopiques (Volume 4), Buena Vista Social Club, Peter Bjorn and John, Kings of Convenience (Quiet Is The New Loud), and Miles Davis (Kind of Blue, and Bitches Brew) become part of my skin.  When I want to relive the soundtrack of my youth I could depend on  The Smiths, Sonic Youth (Goo), Pixies (Doolittle), Joy Division, The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, Psychedelic Furs, Duran Duran, Elvis Costello, David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, and the Beatles (Revolver, and Abbey Road).  These artists are the wordsmiths that remind me that it is great to be alive!

I could talk a million miles about all the other bands that were left out that I love, but I have to leave room for the recipe.  Sorry Steely Dan.

Pine Nut Mushroom Rice is a staple in my house, and is always found in my fridge.  I have probably made it dozens of times while each of these artists played in the background.

Rice Ingredients:

4 – tablespoons butter (1/2 a stick)

2 – chopped white mushrooms

2 – chopped crimini mushrooms

1 – tablespoon minced garlic

2 – cups extra long grain rice (I use Mahatma)

1/4 – cup chopped green onion (white part only) (about 6 stalks)

1/2 – cup pine nuts

1/2 – tablespoon roasted sesame seeds

1/2 – teaspoon black pepper

1 – teaspoon Lawry’s seasoned salt

4 – cups vegetable broth

In a medium pot/sauce pan (with a lid), over a medium high flame, melt butter then add mushrooms, and let saute for 5 minutes. Stirring every minute or so.

Then add in garlic, and rice. Mix well. Continue to saute for another 3 minutes.

Next add in chopped green onions and pine nuts. Continue to saute for 4 minutes. You will notice the rice is starting to brown. Continue to mix so rice doesn’t burn.

Now add sesame seeds, pepper, and Lawry’s. Mix for another minute or until all rice is golden brown.

Add broth and bring to a boil.

Once broth is boiling. Lower flame to low/simmer, and cover pot with a lid.

Cook for 20 minutes. That’s it you’re done!

I like to serve mine with fresh sliced tomatoes, then squeeze lemon over top.

Some people love it with tomatoes, lemon served on the side.

It’s delicious!